By DPA
Washington : Taiwan’s plan to hold a referendum next year on whether it should join the United Nations is a “provocative policy” that will raise tensions with China, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.
Rice Friday said the US opposes any attempt by Taiwan to alter cross strait relations with China and will not support formal independence from Beijing.
“We think that Taiwan’s referendum to apply to the United Nations under the name Taiwan is a provocative policy,” Rice said in her final press conference of the year.
“It unnecessarily raises tensions in the Taiwan Strait, and it promises no real benefits for the people of Taiwan on the international stage,” Rice said.
China regards Taiwan as a renegade province and has threatened to use force if Taipei takes steps that would be viewed as a move to declare independence. Taiwan and China split at the end of a civil war in 1949.
“We oppose any threat to use force and any unilateral move by either side to change the status quo,” Rice said. “We have a one-China policy and we do not support independence for Taiwan.”
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, who travelled to Beijing in November, told reporters Friday that the US remains committed to arming Taiwan for self-defence against any Chinese aggression, as is required by the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act.
Gates said he told the Chinese the US will continue to follow that policy.
“I was very explicit that our arms sales were consistent with the Taiwan Relations Act and the joint statement, and that as long as they continued to build up their forces on their side of the Taiwan Strait, we would continue to give Taiwan the resources necessary to defend itself,” he said.